Information is collected and presented to people in many different ways. Written text, in the form of books, newspapers, and magazines, represents one conventional way of presenting readers with information. Electronically, the written text, in the form of text data, may be presented to people over a computer or other similar device. For example, people may access a web site that provides news and other textual information, along with information in other media formats, such as pictures and other images.
Another way in which information is presented to people is via a presentation, in which a person communicates such information to a person or group of persons. To assist the presenter in communicating such information, conventionally an overhead projector is used to display a sequence of transparent slides, with each slide typically consisting of text and/or some graphical image.
With computers gaining in terms of popularity, such presentations are often carried out through the use of a computer running appropriate software. One example of such software is PowerPoint™ available from Microsoft Corporation. As is well known in the art, PowerPoint™ creates a series of screen slides that typically include written text, and that may include a graphical image or the like. The screens are arranged in some order as dictated by the author. During presentation, the screens are displayed, with the progression from one screen to another being controlled by the presenter, or alternatively being performed automatically by the software.
While such software provides significant benefits and advantages, there are still disadvantages associated therewith. For example, in a conventional presentation, the author must bring the presentation, run PowerPoint™, and carry out the presentation. In addition, there is no provision for on-demand sharing of the presentation.
Moreover, a drawback associated with a number of the prior art systems is that the presentation becomes relatively large, and includes a large number of discrete files. Such a presentation can become a burden to transfer. In addition, when those files are transferred and stored on a recipient's machine, they often consume a large amount of space, even after the recipient is finished with the presentation. Further, in a number of prior art systems the discrete files are transferred in an uncompressed format, which increases the burden of transferring the presentation.
Thus, it would be desirable to have a system and method that process the files comprising a presentation in such a manner so as to create a single file of relatively small size for transferring to a recipient. In addition, it would be desirable to have a system and method that is operative to remove the presentation from a recipient's machine after they view the presentation. Moreover, it would be desirable to process such a file at the recipient's machine. The present invention addresses one or more of these desirable features.